How the Daydreamers Saved the Marvel Universe

No this isn’t about how kids daydreaming about their favourite Superheroes grew up to be the writers of Marvel today (which is most likely true). No this is about the short-lived super team from the 90’s. 

I originally got the idea to write about this team as a movie pitch after seeing Into the Spider-Verse. My thoughts where after seeing that movie other than astonishment as to how good it actually was, the inevitable attempts by another studio to recreate an animated movie based on an eclectically mismatched Superteam was “what team”. I quickly realised which team the short-lived Daydreamers, but looking into them I realised there was a secret hiding behind them all about the structure of Marvel comics at the time. But first WHO are the Daydreamers and HOW in the comics did they join up.

The Daydreamers initially spun out as subplot in Generation-X 20-25, the first 3 members to join together where; Artie Maddocks a mute young mutant with telepathic powers, Leech a former Morlock (a group of Mutants who live in New York sewers) with the power to shut off other superpower and has trouble with pronouns like Elmo from Sesame Street and Franklin Richards the recently orphaned son of Reed and Sue Richards of the Fantastic Four. The next recruit was Howard the Duck who was working as a trucker in the Mid-West who gave a lift to Skin and Chamber (members of Gen-X) back to Massachusetts (The Generation-X team where not based at the Xavier Mansion) , after returning the teen-heroes back home (and having a fe bar brawls) the kids introduced Howard to the fifth member of the team. Rigellan Warrior and former Thor villain called Tana Nile hiding on school grounds. Tana Nile is like a female invader Zim who has learnt what empathy is and now an outcast from her species because she doesn’t believe Rigellans are superior to all other forms of life. Lastly joining the team is the mysterious Man-Thing, the guardian of the Nexus of all Reality and the responsible for bringing Howard from Duck-World (although this was a point of contention from the stories original writer and Howard’s original creator Steve Gerber. Who believed Howard came from a world full of different anthropomorphic animals). 

The Day-Dreamers had their own Mini-series although it was short-lived and it’s one weird trip of a story including references to Dr Seuss. But the series was short-lived due to legal issues as Steve Gerber and Jack Kirby’s lawsuit over creator rights was cropping up again as Steve didn’t like them using his character without his permission. Marvel however didn’t know that Gerber and image Comics founder Erik Larsen hatched a plan, Gerber wrote an issue of Spider-man Team up (5 to be precise) where the Web-head would team up with Gerber’s webbed-foot creation and Gambit from The X-men for some reason. Meanwhile over at image comics Gerber and Larsen would create a comic that told the same story but from the perspective of their own characters, Larsen’s Savage Dragon and Gerber (and Jack Kirby’s) Destroyer Duck, but the Savage Dragon/Destroyer Duck story as well as having some minor curse words had an extra twist. In the story Creaux the villain of the story does a voodoo ritual that makes copies of the pale-yellow Duck, the Marvel story ends with Spider-man, Gambit and “Howard” having defeated Creaux and Tombstone but the image version has something different. Savage Dragon and Destroyer Duck grab the real Howard and his girlfriend Beverly Switzler (no copies of Beverly are needed I guess as there are lots of long-legged redheads in Marvel universe I guess). The heroes of the image Comic now place the most popular write-in candidate during 1977 US Presidential Election and his girlfriend into witness protection in the Savage Dragon universe, renaming Howard Leonard and Beverly changing her name to Rhonda Martini.

So how exactly did this team save Marvel Comics? Well in the 90’s was actually 4 different publishers, “Marvel Spider-man” focusing on all things Spider-man, “Marvel-X” focusing on all mutant related books, “Marvel-Dark” which was Ghost Rider, The Punisher, Daredevil etc and “Marvel Classic” (sounding a lot like a soft-drink) which was The Avengers and Fantastic Four. Marvel Classic was entirely outsourced to Jim Lee’s Wildstorm (which produced Fantastic Four and Iron Man) and Rob Liefeld’s Extreme Studios (which worked on The Avengers until he missed too many deadlines and Windstorm took it over as well), to coincide with this transfer of character was Onslaught which killed off both teams and then the 2 teams re-emerged in a newer version of the marvel universe called “Heroes Reborn”. But there was more to Marvel Classic than those 2 teams and Scott Lobdell and Chris Bachello decided to take some of the lesser used features and fold them into Generation-X. With this action the Marvel universe became less disconnected which was always the point of Marvel Comics, and while short-lived it did mean Franklin was still around in the Marvel Universe to bring back the classic versions of the Fantastic Four, Iron Man, Thor and Captain America after the lacklustre response to “Heroes Reborn”.  

Dyspraxia and Doctor Who

In 2007 I was formally diagnosed with Dyspraxia, there was always some suspicion of this but back then learning difficulties weren’t well known. The education system looked at them with bafflement, Dyspraxia is also less well known than others, Autism has become a go to for writers to have a character who is “a bit odd but it’s not their fault” and Dyslexia and Dyscalculia are easily defined as “The Words one” and “the numbers one”. 

Dyspraxia is motor sensory and short term memories, because of this it has taken me longer to learn things than most people, like I didn’t learn to tie my shoelaces until I was 12. There are many other things I’ve yet to learn that most people know like riding a Bicycle.

When I was diagnosed I had failed AS levels, including media studies a subject I was passionate about and which was also helped by Doctor Who. Doctor Who had a companion show called Doctor Who Confidential which was a behind the scenes documentary of how the show was made. I also had the shooting scripts for the first series of the relaunch series, this was great for media studies as very few TV shows let you have a peak behind the curtain. 

After being diagnosed I was put through the now defunct Wynfed Dore programme, which was designed to help people with learning difficulties to cope with them. This was a long process and involved me balancing on a wobbly board and learning basic juggling (before this I couldn’t even catch a ball). I had to do strange exercises everyday (changing every few days), not just that twice a day and I was determined to see this through. 

After I had managed to graduate the programme with a better sense of balance and co-ordination something happened with Doctor Who. We had a new Doctor, a clumsy, Hunchbacked version. Now I had floppy hair covering my face to try and hide the fact to walk around I was looking down at my feet, and so did this new Doctor. To me this Doctor was Dyspraxia. Doctor Who had presented the world with the Pacifist, caring Dyspraxic Superhero. I was sold on this new incarnation, while many disgruntled fans dislike the change from David Tennant to Matt Smith, it didn’t matter to me, this was My Doctor.

The Doctor as well as his apparent coordination issues was clever and funny. He was loved by his friends and he went on great Adventures with his friends the Ponds and later Clara. The show had lost it’s tedious connection to contemporary times which has always baffled me, why would you if you had a time machine that could go to any planet ever go back home. So your parents will do your Laundry? The Tardis surely has a washing machine (I actually know it does because it appears in the Free Comic Book Day comic in the 10th Doctor’s adventure). 

Of course Matt Smith had to leave the role and was replaced by Peter Capaldi, I still loved Doctor Who just not as much. It didn’t help that the character relationship between the Doctor and Clara was made messy. With 11 and Clara there was a romantic tension, the change to the 12th this was dropped sort of. If anything the Doctor had now become Clara’s ex, and not a good one a nightmare one that shows up at 3AM unannounced drunk. This dynamic lasted for a series and after a natural exit for Clara, the character stayed now with this unuttered feeling of Stockholm syndrome. The Toxic relationship fortunately ended and Peter Capaldi’s Doctor got a better companion dynamic with Nardole and Bill Potts. I loved these 2 new companions they where funny and Bill was bubbling over with excitement when she was on the Tardis just like I’d be. This era of course had to end but if anything I was prepared for Doctor Who to change, for the Doctor to change. When it was announced that the new Doctor would be a woman I was excited, they where finally going to address the systemic sexism within the show, being that the show works on the Doctor is brilliant and solves all the problems and the companion finds new ways to get into trouble in history or alien worlds. But then the actual show started again…

Now Jodie Whittaker’s version of the Doctor I have no problem with at all. My biggest problem is that we have the first in canon “Dyspraxic companion”. The character was weirdly summed up by a promotional gif of him giving up and throwing a bike off of a cliff that the Facebook page labelled with “He tries so hard”. 

Ryan’s Dyspraxia is untreated, he has no training about how to function with it but… he functions with it better than I do. I genuinely other than the first Episode can’t think of an example of him having trouble with his coordination or balance and I can’t chalk this up to lack of communication between different writers because 8/11 Episodes where written by Chris Chibnail. So much so I thought his Dyspraxia was dropped from the series, it was almost confirmed up till the episode Ker-Blam where he mentions he “has trouble learning new things”. This Episode also has a one off character who is clumsy and walks with her head down a more obvious Dyspraxic which lead me to question everything about this run. Why have a companion with Dyspraxia if you don’t know what it is and then I realised their intention was revealed in the Rosa Park’s episode (which was co-written by Chibnail) they think learning difficulty means thick. Ryan despite his Grandmother being a huge Civil rights advocate with a T-shirt that says “Spirit of Rosa Parks” and is so outspoken about the subject and time her new Boyfriend and Ryan’s Step-Grandfather is an expert on it and Ryan himself has no idea who Rosa is. Ryan also occasionally freezes up and needs a pep-talk but his Dyspraxia seems intermittent at most (Wikipedia actually says the character's symptons are mild). Ryan is an example of how to let a learning difficulty beat you (in his introductory episode his Grandfather claims he uses his Dyspraxia as an excuse for everything). And that is why I don’t like this new direction of Doctor Who.